Ethics is a dirty word to

 

***  Warning – This is not a political comment.  It is a comment about ethics.  ***

I’m am sorry but the next entrant into the Dirty Dozen revisited is Mr. Donald Trump.  Not because of who he is or because of any particular alignment, but rather because of what he does.  Let me explain.

How do you spell ethics?

Clearly, a whole lot of Americans voted for him. You may admire or despise him. One thing is sure: there is no chapter on ethics in the “Trump Management Style” book.

Former President Donald Trump has failed to provide the public with an ethics code for his executive transition team.  This was required by the Presidential Transition Act and was due on October 1.

The transition team’s ethics plan governs all election matters before a candidate takes office. A president-elect must meet a high ethical standard. This ensures that they serve the public, not personal interests.  Missing this first ethics requirement in the path to the Oval Office sets a bad example for all leaders and CEOs.

Trump has already shown that he runs the country like a company.

“Win at all costs and screw the ethics!”

He awaits sentencing this month in his New York hush money case. His win this month makes it unlikely he will face the other pending cases against him.  The aggressive push to delay these cases clearly paid off.

You would expect such actions from a company’s head. But they do not convince people that his attitude to ethics has changed.

A leopard doesn’t change its spots.

You must give it to Mr Trump. He has shown unethical behavior that would disqualify other candidates. His misogynistic and offensive slurs against Vice President Kamala Harris are an example.

Did we expect anything different?

Mr. Trump, despite being an effective CEO, has never had any consideration for ethics. Americans elected him to make decisions based solely on cost and economics.  Many businesses will contest that the best business decisions are not always the most ethical ones.

Does his re-election mean that Americans care less about the world’s trust in governments?  Canada’s Justin Trudeau became the first PM to break federal ethics laws. Trump will now be the first former U.S. president convicted of a crime.

Swimming in a sea of conflict

One of the biggest ethical challenges that face businesses is conflicts of interest.

Mr. Trump has many conflicts of interest from his first term. We should expect more of the same. His previous term raised almost 3,500 conflicts of interest. They showed he could not separate his business from his duty as President.

One of his earliest policy failures concerned travel bans of people from a selected number of Muslim countries. Besides to his rhetoric for banning Muslims from entering the US, there were ethical issues and conflicts of interest.  It was an interesting observation that all the named countries did not conduct business with the Trump organization.  All of those that were not named did, despite having a record of exporting terrorism.

In his previous reign, doubts arose about Trump’s “close relationship” with Putin and Russia.  Trump Jr. spoke of,

“The importance of Russian money to the family business.”

Ethical controversy has also shrouded China relations. A trademark, denied to the Trump Organization, was suddenly granted after he changed direction on the U.S. “One China” policy. Several other trademark grants followed this.

Further issues with the Mar-a-Lago promotion raise doubts. They suggest Trump may be a great businessman, but, his actions are unethical.

 

If it looks like a duck…

It is unlikely, Mr. Trump will have to face the outstanding criminal charges.  They will disappear, like so many situations in company compliance.  The 34 convictions will stand. Even he cannot pardon himself for these as they are state, not federal.

They may well be financial penalties as a show of good faith, which will do little damage to such a wealthy man. Ironically, he is unlikely to serve jail time. His lawyers would argue that this would prevent him from doing his job while awaiting an appeal.

In my business life, much of it in compliance and ethics, I saw four signs of an unethical leader:

–          Aggressive, inflammatory behavior

–          Hiding behind statements that are not true (“baffling with bullshit”).

–          Creating confusion to disguise clarity and hide unethical behavior, and

–          Lack of transparency about conflicts of interest.

You can make up your own minds, but remember the saying: if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck.

As I said at the start of this article, this is not intended as a political statement.  I have no vested interest in American politics.  I do not have time for unethical people, though.

It is a sad indictment in my mind. The American people will judge their new President by results, not fairness.  His campaign ran on ‘getting things done.’ Likely, he will succeed, but at what cost?

In a time when world conflict is at an all-time high, is that what we need?

He may be entrant number 5, but he goes to the top of the list, what do you think?

Till next time,

Calvin

Donald Trump